Over 21,600 soldiers went AWOL from army in October – Ihor Lutsenko
According to official data, more than 21,000 military personnel left the service without permission in October.
As reported by Censor.NET, this was announced by former MP, veteran of the Ukrainian-Russian war, and commander of the UAV company Ihor Lutsenko.
Every two minutes, one soldier leaves the army
"21,602 in October. Twenty-one thousand, six hundred and two people. That is how many deserted the army last month. Officially.
This is a record. A very bad record. Every two minutes, one person deserts our army. By the time you finish reading this post, another soldier will have deserted.
Ukraine will become weaker by one defender. And the enemy will become relatively stronger by one person. I remind you that these are only official figures. In reality, many cases of unauthorised leaving of a unit or desertion are not recorded," the message says.
Lutsenko notes that this is a very dangerous trend that will end badly if no action is taken.
"An army that is rolling back is an army that is still capable of winning. An army that is scattering, that is losing more and more people every month due to desertion and escape from units - that is the real danger to Ukraine's existence. Everything we see on the maps, all these daily advances by the enemy, is precisely because we don't have enough soldiers," he stressed.
The lack of personnel creates gaps in defence
Lutsenko added that all these daily advances by the enemy are due to a lack of manpower, leaving huge gaps on the front line.
"We have enough drones on the front line. We have enough money in the rear. We have too few people fighting. Those who are now on the front line are fighting with enormous strain, because every soldier who has not fled has to bear double or triple the load. Because of this, we have huge gaps in our defences on the front line," Lutsenko writes.
He notes that public and political resonance around the situation is crucial. In his opinion, citizens and government officials should openly discuss the real state of troop recruitment, because "silence on this topic... is deadly for the country."
"Even Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, and still unnamed rapid Russian advances in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions these days are not as painful as these figures. The army will roll back, but it will continue to fight. But if there is no army, there will be nothing, nothing at all.
The silence surrounding this topic is terrible, criminal, and deadly for all of us. Because of this silence, we are dying and melting away. Who forced us to remain silent about this melting away of the army? Who took away our voice, and why?" Lutsenko emphasises.
